Mum sells toddler's art on online gallery

AS IS often the case with modern art, it's been said that
Freddie Linsky's paintings look like they could have been created
by a two-year old.

But in Freddie's case, it's true.

Freddie's mother, Estelle Lovatt, posted her son's paintings on
an art gallery web site that lets anyone exhibit and sell their
works online. As an art critic and art teacher, she said she
thought they were above average and wanted to see what others
thought.

She said Freddie sold his first painting last year and a gallery
in Berlin expressed interest - though she won't reveal its name.
Neither the buyer nor the gallery knew Freddie's age.

British newspapers caught on to Freddie's talent a year after
his mother said she sold his painting.

Freddie's profile on the gallery's site doesn't state his age,
saying only that "the artist's whole life has been dedicated to his
art" and that he is an art critic and a familiar face at press
viewings at major galleries and exhibitions in London.

Both of those facts are true, Lovatt said, just not exactly as
they seem. Lovatt is an art critic, freelance radio journalist and
part-time teacher at an art school and has taken Freddie with her
to galleries and exhibitions. He has indeed been painting almost
his entire life - starting with tomato sauce on his high chair
tray.

The gallery, Saatchi Online, is open to artists anywhere. The
site is free and does not charge a commission.

The gallery generates $US100 million ($A114.15 million) in sales
per year and receives more 50 million hits per day, said Annabel
Fallon, a spokeswoman for the gallery. She said Freddie was
probably the youngest of the 75,000 artists displayed on the
site.

Lovatt said her reason for posting Freddie's paintings was
simple: she thought her son was talented and wanted to see what
others thought.

"I'm an art critic and I'm looking at one or two finished
pieces, and I noticed that some of them actually looked quite good
and I thought, 'Am I just being a biased mother or is there
something there?"' she said.

She said she had fun embellishing the captions for paintings and
expected people to see through what she wrote. The painting that
sold for STG20 ($A46), The Best Loved Elephant, says: "The striking
use of oriental calligraphy has the kanji like characters
stampeding from the page, showing the new ascent of the East. One
of the artist's most experimental works."

But the intent was not to trick anyone, she said.

"Nobody was duped," she said. "The purchaser bought it for 20
pounds. That's cheaper than a poster and it amounts to costs of his
paints."

She added that she didn't think Freddie's age was relevant.

"I thought people might not look at it as a piece of potential
art, but look at it as children's art," she said. "With abstract
art, most people turn and say 'Oh my child could do that.' In this
case he has."